all together now - We Love School !!!

 Big week around here - the first week of school for everyone except the ladybug. She will go Tuesday , and we cannot wait ! I am looking forward to meeting her bus at the high school - I am sure she will have some stories to tell! [ and I am also sure that her teachers will have a few]

 Thomas fixed a rice/tofu/dumpling kind of thing this week - he and the man really liked it, and I am glad he wanted to do that.  We have to incorporate more Korean foods into our meals !

Tonight was the 'back to choir' party for the children at church - ladybug had a big fun time, as always. I really liked watching her friend attempt the diving board for the first time - he would stand there for a l-o-n-g time, and you could see how much it scared him. He actually went off the board twice, I think. Bless his sweet time.

Gotcha day for the monkey is this wednesday. Eleven years with him - who can believe that? What a gift. He is the sweetest child, and we are so thankful for his sweet spirit.

And that pretty much sums up our week . So glad we all had such a good start to the year ! I hope you do , too !!!!

weekends are made for this

So, we had to go to Memphis. Thomas really wanted some Kimchi, and of course we like any excuse to head out to the International Market [woo!!!] 

When I woke up at 5:00 a.m. [ because I'm a teacher and cool like that ] I had a genius idea - look up Korean restaurants in Memphis, and let Thomas have a taste of home. I am going to have to say that I really liked the "Kwik Check" in  the Overton Square area, and we all four enjoyed the bi bim bop. Yes, I said it. I am NOT going to say that I loved the kimchi we had that evening, but I will say the lunch was pretty great. And it made Thomas very happy. Cannot wait to see what the monkey will do with a big stone bowl of goodness. 

The monkey will be home this evening - in about two hours. actually. We are looking forward to hearing all about his trip with the youth group from church, and we are also fighting back the tears when we realize that our sweet little baby boy is now a seventh grader..... how did that happen? 

School starts for the children tuesday. I think I will be ready by then . I am so thankful that I spent so much time back in May, when I cleaned and organized both of my storage spaces. I hope I can stay that organized throughout the year. I doubt it, but I can always hope. 

I hope you have a smooth transition into the school year, and have treat yourself to a nice big hot bi bim bop!

and now we are five

Stella and I are slightly outnumbered. Thomas arrived Thursday evening , and will be living with us for the entire school year. We are so excited about having him as our exchange student ! I think he is going to like it here !

squeezing the last of the summer fun out

Happy Fourth , Y'all !

We went to a cook-out at the home of some friends - and had a really good time ! We had some great food, wonderful fellowship, and the kids swam until it was too dark to see. My kind of time, I can tell you !

June , June - you are gone too soon

I like the way our  Minister of Children has a retreat for the upper-elementary children . It is so much fun to watch these sweet children play and worship together. This is the monkey's last year to go - he moves up to Jr. High MYF in August [ oh, can you believe it?!]. The Ladybug is still not old enough for the retreats , but she goes with us each year. This year, we had two other friends her age with us, so she had a great time playing with them. Of course, she still spent a lot of time being carried and babied by the older girls - such a tough life, I can tell you.
The baseball season ended this week, and we found out at the last game that Monkey's All-Stat team did not make . Just not enough in his age group this go around. I am not that sad about it - those games are played at the HOTTEST time of the year, and it is miserable.
Now we are getting ready for our exchange student - he will be here in about a month. I hope we don't scare him away !

Look at the potential !

Out of school ! What a wonderful feeling ! So many days with so few plans - I love it ! We actually have a nice amount of activities lined up this summer - baseball, baseball camp, All-Star team , swimming lessons for the ladybug and then the VBS retreat. Not to mention the art camp and the list of summer plans for the four of us to accomplish at home! What fun !
The Texas two just left - we had a nice weekend visit - and we miss them already.

In case you are wondering, this is what the last day of school looks like